Pennsylvania wind developers are warning Congress that wind production may come to a halt if a renewable energy production federal tax credit isn’t extended past next year.

“Without a tax credit, you will not see new construction of wind farms. You simply won’t,” said Jim Spencer, president and CEO of EverPower Wind Holdings Inc., a New York-based wind developer with the majority of its operations in Lawrenceville and three wind farms in southwestern Pennsylvania.

In fact, if the measure is allowed to lapse, Spencer predicted the company’s 150-megawatt Twin Ridges project in Somerset County would be its last large-scale development. That means about 500 megawatts worth of near-future projects “will not build without (it),” he said.

The production tax credit gives wind operators a subsidy of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour. For EverPower, it accounts for about 35 percent of a project’s capital cost.

The credit, in one form or another, has been around since 1992. It has lapsed three times and, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the years following the lapses suffered a drop in wind development between 73 percent and 93 percent from preceding years.

In 2009, the federal stimulus bill allowed wind developers to claim a 30 percent investment tax credit, or an up-front cash payment equal to that 30 percent, instead of the production credit for projects operational before 2013.

Pennsylvania has more than 700 megawatts of wind power already in service and another 3,400 MW in queue, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Spanish company Iberdrola Renewables has developed about 200 megawatts of wind power in the state, including a wind farm in Somerset County, and has projects in various stages of development that might be derailed if the tax credit stalls, according to spokesman Paul Copleman.

“As a project developer, we are certainly more hesitant to plan our future investments,” he said. “We’re an international company, and we’re going to spend money where the investment atmosphere is consistent, and what we’re looking for is that consistency.”

Dave Friend, CEO of Greensburg-based US Wind Force LLC, which has developed wind farms in West Virginia and Maryland, said the company’s plans for future projects in Pennsylvania and Virginia would be “very much” endangered by the expiration of the production tax credit.

Wind’s subsidy is ultimately passed to the consumer, he said, because wind developers are able to charge a lower rate to utilities who buy the wind, and utilities, in turn, can charge consumers less for a portfolio that includes renewable energy.

Conversely, the tax credit’s expiration will mean wind producers will hike their prices, which will “dramatically affect” their ability to secure long-term contracts with utilities.

“Obviously, price does come into play,” said Mark Durbin, a spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp., the largest wind power purchaser in Pennsylvania, with 277 megawatts under contract. “If it’s a price that we think is reasonable, we would sign for the off take.”

If it’s too high, there would be little to compel FirstEnergy to buy wind power, since it can satisfy its state mandate by buying now-inexpensive renewable energy credits.

“Since we’re mostly a fossil and nuclear generator, the bigger picture is really that those types of alternative energies should probably compete without any type of subsidy,” Durbin said.

US Wind Force and EverPower were among the signatories to an industry letter urging congressional leaders to take up the issue and promoting a bill introduced Nov. 2 that would extend the tax credit until the end of 2016.

The American Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit Extension Act of 2011 also would extend the same credit for biomass, geothermal, small irrigation, landfill gas, trash and hydropower projects. Their subsidies are scheduled to expire in 2013.

A similar letter was signed by 23 of the 26 state governors in the Governors Wind Coalition, but Gov. Tom Corbett pulled his name from that list.

“Given the tremendous challenges Congress faces in closing the national budget deficit, and its need to look at all programs which affect the federal budget, we have not taken a specific position on this legislation,” said Eric Shirk, a spokesman for Corbett.

If the credit is extended, however, Pennsylvania companies should be “treated fairly among the states and not placed at a competitive disadvantage,” he said.

Spencer gave the legislation a 50-50 chance of passing.

“I think there’s more support than that, but once it gets rolled into the sausage making in Washington …” he said, trailing off. “It’s sort of a very dark tunnel past 2013.”